And then, when I saw Pam Buda's new sew-along for a miniature quilt she calls Dear Prudence I caved. (Thank you for the sew-along, Pam.) Her inspiration quilt had 18 tiny birds in the air blocks. I fell in love with the colors of the birds on that little quilt. I have a small collection of fabrics in the gold-to-copper-to-bronze-to-green-to-brown color range. Pam use pinks and blues from her fabric line for her beautiful quilt. My version uses the original colors as much as I was able to see and copy them. Except I didn't have enough of any double pink. I also didn't have the pattern. My only clue to size was that the tiny birds, unfinished, were 1½" square.
My quilt top is together except for the two borders. I still need to trim around the edges because I wasn't sure how big to make the side-setting and corner triangles. Oversize is better, I thought.
I forgot how dense little quilts can become. The seams in the tiny half-square-triangle blocks almost cover the triangles on the back.
Finishing this top (trimming edges and adding two borders), plus choosing backing, deciding whether to use batting/flannel between, and basting are my One Monthly Goal this month.
I'm linking this post to
> November One Monthly Goal Linkup at Elm Street Quilts.
> Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
> Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
> Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More
> Off the Wall Friday at Nina's blog
Thanks for hosting, ladies!
--Nancy.
Sensational! You have made a delightful little quilt - and so much detail and intricate piecing. It's just adorable.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Robin. Now that it's almost finished I'm thinking it could have been smaller. Ha!
DeleteNancy, You have done an incredible job of recreating that adorable quilt. I had to laugh, but not for the reason you may have thought. You didn't have the pattern for this and yet have done so well. I DO have the pattern and made some major cutting errors. So, though I had cut out the entire quilt (or so I thought), the frustration of having to recut almost everything made me lose my enthusiasm for the project and after 6 blocks I couldn't bring myself to do more. I chose my 5 favorites of the six blocks and made a very small version of this--hardly looks like the same quilt, which is partly because I made a different colorway.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you!
Thank you, Janet. I'm surprised that you mis-cut but I'm sure your quilt will be adorable. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
DeleteSimply beautiful! Kudos for making these teeny tiny blocks!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat. Now that it's almost finished I'm actually wondering if the blocks should have/could have been smaller! Each block finishes at 3" and it's only the small blocks that are 1½".
DeleteBeautiful! Your usual knack for finding fabrics excels here. It's darling. Tiny quilts are such a fun uplifting change from the long slog of making a bed quilt.
ReplyDeletelizzzy
Thank you, Lizzy. I have some thoughts about the fabrics I used--now that the blocks are all sewn together. Little quilts can be fun unless they're really detailed and really small, and then they are just a frustration to me. But this one was, as you say, an uplifting change.
DeleteSo cute! Good luck with your goal.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Helen Anne. I'm now hoping I might be able to begin quilting it, too, this month. We'll see.
DeleteIt's beautiful! The double pink was used a lot during a certain period of the Civil War era to about 1880, and it makes a great contrast. Pinks and browns were often used together then and I love the combination.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan. I really like pinks and browns together, and I love the double pinks (for some quilts) but they're really hard to find locally which.
DeleteWow! I tried my hand at these once several years ago -- well, mini blocks, really. It was a class through what was then Quilt University, called "Jane Was Nuts!" (referring to Jane Stickle (https://benningtonmuseum.org/portfolio-items/1863-jane-stickle-quilt-2/). I made 9 wee blocks and put them together as a table topper -- I still have it and use it! Maybe it's time to give minis another 'go'...
ReplyDeleteI think the Dear Jane blocks are incredibly challenging (just by looking at them, because I haven't tried to make any). Kudos to you, Margaret, for making 9 of them! Your table topper is probably delightful!
DeleteI see you didn't make the mistake I always do, which is I press the seams to the side, and you pressed them open. I recently hand quilted a little quilt with flannel as batting, made it hard to quilt. I just need to dig out the sewing machine and get the binding on.
ReplyDeleteI press seams open except for a few circumstances, such as the points on geese, which have several layers of fabric overlapping and really don't want to fold over.
DeleteI used flannel instead of batting in the last small quilt I made. I think the kind of flannel must make a difference. Mine was not difficult to quilt (but it's very bendable/foldable. Of course, I didn't want it stiff.
It will be great to get the binding on your little quilt!
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